Sunday, 25 February 2018

Last year, I used a mirror as the base for some simple quoteart [you can see thatDIYhere].
I live in a narrow house, so adding mirrors really helps add the feeling of space. I've really struggled to find a mirror for my fireplace that is what I'm after in size, design and cost - so I'm up-styling a staple IKEA mirror [STAVE] to achieve the look I want.

I actually really struggled to find a bunch of flowers that I liked and after a tour of all the major supermarkets (much spare time on my hands), I decided to give my last attempt to my local Co-Op.
Again, I found a very limited selection but - even better - a reduced bucket, containing two slightly sorry-looking-but-completely-fine bunches of flowers for £3.25 each. The ultimate challenge.

To start, I decorated my gift box -a step you can completely skip if you buy yours pre-decorated. I sprayed the areas that would be on view [the inside lid and all edges] and left to dry completely.

As this was happening, I soaked my foam in a bowl of water and prepared my flowers: firstly by separating each type of flower and foliage in to bunches to see what I had to work with:

I then 'tidied up' each stem - removing any browned or broken petals and snapped or torn leaves. Finally, I trimmed each stem, using the height of my box as a guide, to the longest I wanted the flower to stand and then removed the leaves and any greenery.

Once the paint was dry, I lined my gift box with tin foil to protect it, before placing my soaked foam in the centre.

I like symmetry and find this the easiest way to arrange my flowers, so I started from the centre outwards with the type of flower I had the most of from my bunches. In two colours, this also meant I could create a little interest as well as a span of the same type of flower.

Simply trim the stem to size and secure in to the foam - you can change your mind and move things around with no problem as you go to even out the spread of flowers. Any off-shoot flowers that need to be removed can be kept aside later as 'filler', so don't worry about trimming your stems down:

I added some 'filler':

...and this then gave me a much better idea of the space I had left for the flowers I had less of:

As the number of flower type reduced, I added them to the gift box to add to the fullness, interest and colour span:

...and then finally the main feature of the bunch, the roses: all 2 of them.....

Fan out the flowers to let them fill the box and add any of your 'filler' flowers put aside earlier. Don't be afraid to move things about if you aren't happy with any placements too:

As I was using the lid as part of the presentation, I'd concentrated my arrangement towards the front half of the box, leaving the back half a little more empty:

When the flowers are displayed, they can be fanned out and moved to fill these gaps:

As a final step, I decorated the box with wrapping paper, round the side of the box and top and side of the lid, finished with a white velvet ribbon bow.

To hold the lid in place, I used glue strips - like the ones that hold perfume and makeup samples in place in magazines - to create a semi-permanent fix and rest for the lid:

I bought my gift box before the flowers, but if you can, I recommend swapping this round to help you get the right match. You could also fill your box out even more with some strategically placed tissue paper, folded so that the corners come out of the box edge, under the bouquet [I really wish I'd done this, in a contrasting colour ].

This is completely customisable - the colours and style, from the flowers to the gift box can be changed to reflect the person lucky enough to receive them [even if that's you].
If Gift DIYs and crafts are your bag - you can find more ideas right HERE.